This invention relates, generally, to a multiaxis force transducer and more particularly to a force transducer which provides electrical output signals which are proportional to forces and moments along three orthogonal axis.
As a result of present day manufacturing considerations such as miniaturization, minimization of materials and optimizing the usage of materials, accurate testing and evaluation becomes an increasingly significant factor. This is particularly present in industries such as the electrical connector field wherein contact forces are critical and must be accurately examined. This problem of measuring forces and also moments in a discrete manner therefore becomes more and more important. Heretofore however, devices for measuring such forces required reorientation of the device to be measured or the transducer for performing the measurement for each directional force or moment. Further, devices which attempt to measure forces and or moments in more than one direction simultaneously generally require computer processing so as to spearate force measurements into proper directional components. A description of some generally utilized force transducers or detectors may be found in the U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,258,565 "FORCE DETECTOR" issued Mar. 31, 1981, to Sawayama et al; 4,223,443 "STRAIN PICK-UP FOR TESTING OF MATERIALS" issued Sept. 23, 1980 to Bachmann et al; 4,114,429 "METHOD OF AN APPARATUS FOR SENSING STRAIN IN STRAINED MEMBERS" issued Sept. 19, 1978, to Clark; 4,055,078 "STRAIN TRANSDUCER" issued Oct. 25, 1977 to D'Antonio et al; 3,559,467 "STRAIN MEASURING DEVICE" issued Feb. 2, 1971 to Gurol et al; 3,470,700 "SINGLE BEAM FORCE TRANSDUCER WITH INTEGRAL MOUNTING ISOLATION" issued Sept. 30, 1969 to Weisbord; 3,341,795 "FORCE TRANSDUCER" issued Sept. 12, 1967 to Eisele and 3,263,199 "BENDING-STRAIN TRANSDUCER" issued July 26, 1966 to Zandman.
It is desirable to have a device which is sensitive to forces and moments having outputs which are independent from each other with respect to their orthogonal axes. It is also desirable to have such a device which is relatively simple as well as inexpensive to manufacture and having a minimum number of components. It is also advantageous to have a device which does not require computer analyzation of output data to obtain force values, but instead uses relatively inexpensive strain gage conditioners and elements.
Accordingly, the present invention teaches and as an object of the present invention a multi-axis force transducer, comprising a body having four sides, a top and a bottom portion, a plurality of U-shaped apertures disposed in the body wherein the U-shaped apertures are disposed with respect to each other so as to be nested within each other thereby defining a beam portion which is adjacent to the legs of the U-shaped apertures, a plurality of strain gage mounting apertures disposed in the beam portion and at least one strain gage disposed inside each strain gage mounting aperture so as to measure tension or compression experienced by the associated beam in one axis only.